“Let Them Come” – “Let Them Work”: Receiving/Using

Children in a Globalized World

Dr. I. John Mohan Razu

Introduction

Whether or not we have children of our own, we are concerned about children in our

midst and in our wider culture. Are they being raised with love and affection? Are they

receiving a good education? Are they being exposed to good role models? How do we

account for the serious problems many of them are facing, such as abuse, depression,

teenage pregnancy, and poverty? Our concerns and questions are reflected in the

growing number of public debates across liberal and conservative lines about children.

Diverse political parties, non-profit agencies, and religious groups are focusing more

attention on a number of issues, including child health and safety, education, child

poverty, juvenile crime, child neglect and abuse, and the moral development of children.

Certainly, the severity of these problems is highly debated, and there is disagreement

about whether the present situation of children is better or worse than it was in the past.

Nevertheless, broad public concern for children and heightened recognition of the

tremendous challenges they face are unmistakable.1

The above quotation posits the alacrity and gravity of the state of children

globally. This is why there is a widespread concern and interest in children

growing and gaining momentum, cutting across the ideological, political,

cultural, social, national and economic boundaries. The commitment to keep

intact the children in all entireties as a category of the present and future is

growing in a range of academic disciplines and discourses, reaching well beyond

those areas of study/disciplines that have typically paid attention to children

namely education and child psychology. Particularly, in the last few years, both

in the Western and non-Western worlds, historians, social scientists, theologians,

ethicists, policy makers, psychologists and others have been exploring the history

of childhood in their cultures, particularly in the areas of philosophical and

theological conceptions, their cognitive and intuitive capacities and also their

rights.

In addition to these, the sociologists and psychologists are engaged in

groundbreaking studies especially in relation to effects of globalisation and its

consequential impact on families leading to divorce and single parenting that

affects the children. Certainly, the interplay between economics and psychology

1 Marcia J. Bunge (ed.), The Child in Christian Thought, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing

Company, 2001, p.1

should also be explored because of its influence on children’s lives. In an era of

globalisation some of the studies have also focused more directly the influence of

religion and ethics on children. Enormity and multiplicity of studies and

researches that clearly shows that children as an important category ought to be

understood comprehensively than in parts. Therefore,

Studies such as these are helping us to reflect more seriously on a number of questions

regarding the nature of children and the obligations of parents and the wider community

to children. The historical studies highlight conceptions of childhood and how they can

change over time, and they prompt us to reflect on our own current attitudes toward and

assumptions about childhood. The psychological and philosophical studies shed light on

the complex emotional, intellectual, moral, and spiritual lives of children, and they raise a

number of important questions about the development of children, about out treatment of

them, and about their religious worlds. Studies in these and other disciplines,

particularly sociology and law, have also challenged us to think not only about the

obligations of parents toward their own children but also about the responsibilities of

schools, religious organizations, local communities, and the state for nurturing children2

“C o u l d I c l i m b t o t h e h i g h e s t p l a c e i n

A t h e n s , I w o u l d l i f e u p m y v o i c e a n d

s h o u t , „ F e l l o w - c i t i z e n s , w h y d o y e t u r n

a n d s c r a p e v e r y s t o n e t o g a t h e r w e a l t h ,

a n d t a k e s o l i t t l e c a r e o f y o u r c h i l d r e n t o

w h o m o n e d a y y o u m u s h r e l i n q u i s h i t

a l l ‟ ” .

S o c r a t e s

“W e k n o w n o t h i n g o f c h i l d h o o d ; a n d w i t h

o u r m i s t a k e n n o t i o n s t h e f u r t h e r w e

a d v a n c e t h e f u r t e r w e g o a s t r a y ” .

J e a n - J a c q u e s R o u s s e a u , E m i l e

“If o n l y I k n e w t h e w a y b a c k , t h e p l e a s a n t

p a t h t o t h e l a n d o f c h i l d h o o d . ”

K l a u s G r o t h , “ H e i m w e h ”

“I m y s e l f a m b e c o m e e n t i r e l y a c h i l d

a g a i n , l u c k i l y f o r m e . ”

J o s e p h , i n S c h l e i e r m a c h e r ‟ s „ T h e C e l e b r a t i o n o f C h r i s t m a s ‟

2 Marcia J. Bunge (ed.) The Child in Christian Thought, Michigan: Grand Rapids, 2001, p.3

The questions that we should ask are: What have been the contributions of

Christian Theology and Christian Ethics to the wider public and academic debate

about children? Or how these disciplines could help us to reflect on our

perceptions and notions about the nature of children and our obligations to

them? Until recently, not much has been written in the areas of theology and

ethics about the issues related to children. We find scanty and sketching

materials in the social teaching of the Church on the nature of children and child

care, when compared to economic justice, euthanasia, abortion and moral

justifications while waging war. All these factors manifest and contribute to lack

of sustained reflection on the nature of children and obligations of the parents

and the state. The scenario clearly posits that,

The absence of well-developed and historically and biblically informed teachings about

children in contemporary theology helps explain why many Churches often struggle to

create and to sustain strong programs in religious education and in child-advocacy

ministry. In the second place, since little serious attention has been given to children in

contemporary theology, assumptions about Christian perspectives on children are often

shaped mainly by recent and distributing studies about the religious roots of child abuse.

Some of the most familiar studies have exposed what had been called a “poisonous

pedagogy” in some past and present strains of European and American Protestantism.

This type of inhumane pedagogy stresses the absolute obedience of children to parents, the

sinful nature or depravity of children, and the need to “break their wills” at a very early

age with harsh physical punishment. According to some of these studies, the idea that

children are sinful and thus must have their wills “broken” is often supported by the

notions that since god punishes his people, parents must punish their children, and that

obedience to God demands absolute obedience to parents, even if they are acting unjustly.

This kind of religious reasoning and the emphasis on the depravity of children have

apparently led, in some cases, to the physical abuse and even death of children, including

infants.3

However, what we understand from these diverse studies that Christianity to an

extent seems to have spoken vociferously in favor of realizing their wholeness.

How did the Church, Christian theology and ethics view children in the past and

view children as of now? Incidentally, several studies have made new breaking

grounds by shedding light on issues regarding children. These studies devoted

specifically to the diverse issues faced by children by raising questions and

deepening the process to find of answers more fully within an ever-growing

plethora of complexities and travesties of debates that the children encounter in

an era of globalisation.

3 Ibid, pp.4-5.

Further, theological and ethical frameworks ought to emerge from a specific

social and historical context. Certainly, an endeavor of this sort could amplify

and provide viable theologies and ethical perspective and reflection on children.

Such an initiative could trigger serious praxis based on sound, theoretical

framework by which a meaningful responses to contemporary challenges be

realized.

1. How do people from different walks of life speak about the nature and

importance of children?

2. What is the current state of children in a globalising world with particular

reference to India?

3. How are children treated in the emerging social, cultural and political

context?

4. What are the implications of these ideas for our contemporary views of

children and our obligations to them namely parents, the state, and the

Church to nurture children?

5. What are the implications if children are continued to neglect and our

obligations to them?

I

“Windows” and “Fences” of Children

Children are said to be the future of humanity. They come into this world with

lots of joy and clouds of glory. They are the eternal source of inspiration and

hope. They are endowed with infinite quantum of possibilities, which is inherent

in them. In view of this, Rabindranath Tagore has observed ‚Every child comes

with the message that God is not discouraged of man(sic)‛. Children are the most

precious assets of the world and they are the backbone, hump and fulcrum of

humankind. The future of the humanity is dependent the way how we lay our

foundation of a just and happy world for children and the world of tomorrow.

Only then we could be hopeful of a happier and peaceful world. It has been

rightly observed by former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi in her message on

the International Year of the Child, ‚If we wish to lay firm foundations of a just

and happier world, we have to take care of generations of children who need to

be nursed, helped and equipped to play their role in the world of tomorrow‛.4

4 Jagannath Mohanty, Child Development and Education Today, Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications, 1998,

p.42

The above statements emphasize the importance of children in any given society.

Over the last hundreds of years many realize the importance of children and

their childhood. Echoing on similar lines, a psychologist went to the extent of

saying, ‚Give me the first five years of the child and take the rest of my life‛.

Therefore, the early years are important for the children because a place very

impressionable and formative for the growth and development of the child. On

these lines it has been aptly said, ‚If the superstructure is not to totter, the

foundation must be laid well‛.5 Hence the foundation is more important for early

childhood. Unfortunately, however, the world in general has not yet realized the

importance of children and not taking care of them adequately.

The human destiny in fact actually depends on children and therefore they

should be nursed and brought-up with love, affection and care. The potentialities

and innate capabilities ought to be brought out to the optimum and their innate

qualities that are expressed through different organs of the body with the

commands from head and heart need to be properly nourished and developed.

In addition the potentialities of children will augment only when innate and

environmental conditions are provided. Initially, it was believed that heredity is

the sole determinant of human potentialities. But the modern research shows

that heredity does not operate independently but in support of other elements.

Children are like flowers and thus be allowed to bloom fully and naturally so

that the entire world can be enriched with happiness, peace, love, sharing and

caring.

For this, conducive and suitable facilities are to be provided and congenial

atmosphere is created. Unless and until some of these are addressed we cannot

expect children to develop their potentialities and creativity. To translate some of

these demands an environment and atmosphere that would give the children

ample freedom to grow and develop. Only in such an atmosphere the children

could grow in totality, i.e., emotionally, psychologically and physically.

Children per se are the gift of God, irrespective of caste, class, creed and color.

Children are regarded as the most precious asset. Hence, the children are the

centre of universal attention. As Rousseau rightly points out that ‚Everything

that comes from the hands of God is good, but de-generates in the hands of

man‛. Precisely because of these reasons the discoveries and inventions we make

instead of serving the humanity creates more problems and conflicts for many. In

this sense, we should lay more emphasis on the ‚normalization of the child‛ and

5 Ibid., p.44.

‚rationalization of human nature‛. Why I am saying this is from outside and by

applying external pressure we cannot bring about any change but we need to

inculcate the values right from the infant stage of childhood so that there is a

process of internalization. Therefore, every new creation or a child is always a

gift from God and the human society need to construct that child into a fuller

human being encapsulated with good values and thus becoming father/mother

of humanity.

All along the human history children played a major role in the process and

progression of human civilization.

Nobody could have predicted then that, the helpless, innocent human child holds within

himself a secret of life, and is able to elevate the human soul and capable to accelerate the

speed of advancement; that he is the incarnate of an unknown and unlimited quantity

and quality, the discovery of which might enable the mankind to solve the individual,

social, political and spiritual problems. This knowledge and revelation has become the

foundation of a new science of child study, capable of transcending and influencing the

whole social life of man.6

As the quotation rightly posits that the children should be taken more seriously

because they are not a product of original sin but an epitome of innocence, and

future subject of history. Society has come to a realization that concerns for the

child is more important than another concern. It is imperative that the child as a

child should be shown with care and concern. The society should provide

protection and needed assistance so that children would grow both mentally and

physically without any impairment. Material, moral and intellectual resources of

the family as well as the society should be reserved for them. The child would

suffer if there are no such resources and the child in turn has to suffer material,

moral and intellectual poverty.

Thus the children have been the victims of social ignorance and inertia. Statistics

keep portraying shuddering state of child mortality and under-nourishment. For

example,

The unnatural death of small children was so natural to the families, they were least

worried about the problem, comforting themselves that little children went direct to

heaven as little angels since God wished to have them near Him. In short, the

phenomenon may be termed as “he constant slaughter of innocents”.7

6 Ibid., pp.6-7. 7 Ibid, p.7.

II

Suffer Little Children -- Crosses Sectors and Borders

Most Marginalised

The Unicef’s annual report on the state of the world’s children provides shocking

details of how millions of children across the world have become virtually

invisible to the world. According to The State of the World’s Children 2006:

Excluded and Invisible millions of children disappear who are trafficked – often

for sex – or forced to work as domestic servants ‘disappear’ from sight into

under-ground economies. While street children are visible, they are denied

schooling, health care and nutrition, the Unicef report points out. The report

draws attention to how the issue of exploited children has failed to figure on the

world’s radar.

When a child’s is not registered, he is being denied citizenship, compromising in

the process his access to education, healthcare and other services. Around 50

million births in developing countries go by unregistered every year. The report

describes the exploitation of around 171 million children who are employed in

hazardous conditions in mines and factories and as fighters in zones of conflict.

Some 8.4 million children are pushed into the worst forms of bondage –

prostitution and debt bondage. Nearly two million children are used in the

commercial sex trade, where they routinely face sexual and physical violence.

Around 143 million children in developing countries have lost at least one

parent, which often takes a toll on their health and education. These children are

often denied a childhood as they are forced by circumstances to adopt adult

roles.

The issue of abused and exploited children rarely figures in the media, public

debate or statistics. Policy makers have not accorded the issue the priority it

deserves. Millions of children will remain trapped in dire situations without

focused attention on their plight.

The Unicef report provided recommendations that governments and civil society

would do well to consider. For instance, it suggests that birth certificates should

not be made compulsory for entry into schools as a child whose birth is not

registered then has to bear the additional burden of illiteracy as well.

Governments need to match their verbal expression of commitment to the well-

being of children with action on the ground. They need to ensure that vulnerable

children are not left behind. Bringing ‘invisible’ children on to the radar of socio-

economic programmes in a more focused manner is the first essential step.

Continuing, almost 11 million children die every year from preventable and

treatable causes as per the World Health Organisation and United Nations

Children’s Fund (UNICEF). ‚Of the 11 million who die, eight million are babies –

half of then in the first month of life,‛ said the WHO Director-General, Harlem

Brundtland. ‚These deaths were preventable and treatable with the necessary

political will and resources. Malnutrition accounts for 60 per cent of all deaths in

childhood. Malnutrition and infectious diseases are a deadly feature that affects

the young.‛

A special focus will be on how to save the lives of the millions of newborn babies

who die during the first weeks of their lives. ‚We know now that about 90 per

cent of the children that die each year, die at home,‛ said Carol Bellamy,

Executive Director of UNICEF. ‚How children are cared for at home and in their

communities has a decisive impact on their chances of survival. We need to

provide parents and caregivers with essential knowledge and commodities that

can save the lives of their children.‛

(see http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002031302961200.htm)

Avoidable Deaths

The World Health Organisation’s latest report draws attention to the dismal state

of mother and child health in India. The report points out that globally about

5,30,000 women die annually in pregnancy or child-birth, more than three

million babies are stillborn, over four million newborns die within a few weeks

of life, and altogether 10.6 million die before their fifth birthday. Of these, India

accounts for significant numbers – 1, 36,000 maternal and a million newborn

deaths occur annually in India. Most of these deaths are avoidable. They occur

not because of incurable diseases but because of unsafe water, unhygienic

environments, malnutrition and common childhood diseases.

Many of these deaths occur because of the enormous discrimination against

women and the girl child. Little attention is given to the health of women and

girls in this country. They are discriminated against with regard to access to food

and their health and survival are not given the priority they deserve. Maternal

mortality rates are high among the so-called better off states in India. Karnataka,

for instance, figures among the states where maternal mortality ration exceeds

400 per 100,000 live births. The WHO report draws attention to growing number

of women undergoing caesarean sections. What is worrying is that many women

undergo caesarean sections even though their physical condition does not

require it.

The Millennium Development Goals that were adopted by 189 countries had

stressed the need to reduce infant mortality by two-thirds and maternal

mortality by three-quarters by 2015. The report reveals that 93 countries are on

track to achieve these goals. Fifty-one countries, including India, are making

slow progress and in 43 countries the situation has either stagnated or is

worsening. Clearly, much more needs to be done to meet the 2015 deadline.

Awareness of the importance of reproductive health issues is low in India and

the government needs to do more to create public awareness. Merely allocating

money towards health is not enough. India’s expenditure on health as a

percentage of the GDP has grown over the years. Yet, its performance with

regard to reducing infant and maternal mortality has been disappointing. India is

not lagging behind in investing in public health. It needs to do more to ensure

that programmes aimed at improving maternal and child health are actually

implemented and that the money being spent on public health reaches the

intended beneficiaries.8

War is not for Children

Child was approved by the UN General Assembly in 1989, and has now been

ratified by 191 countries. It commits governments to ensure, among other things,

that every child receives a primary education that no child serves as a soldier,

that no child is engaged in work which interferes with its education, and that

children without families are care for.

Today, an estimated 120 million children receive no schooling at all. 60 million

homeless children (equal to the population of France) live on the street, cared for

by no one. 250 million children are trapped in child labor. And 300,000 children

are forced as soldiers to kill for a living. There are boys and girls under the age of

18 fighting in armed conflicts around the world. Some are recruited when they

are seven or eight years old. Many fight on the front lines of combat; others carry

supplies, or act as messengers or guards. Girls are often subjected to sexual abuse

or forced to become ‚wives‛ of older commanders. Children are often recruited

because they are physically vulnerable and easily intimidated. Some are

recruited by force, others join armed groups to escape poverty, avenge past

8 See ‘Avoidable deaths’ in Deccan Herald, (d.m.y.na), p.14.

abuses, or out of desperation. War destroys communities, leaving children

without schools, homes or their families. In this situation many children perceive

armed groups as their best chance for survival.

Child soldiers are currently serving in more than 30 countries, including

Colombia, Sri Lanka, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2000, the United

Nations adopted a new treaty, the optional Protocol to the Convention on the

Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The

protocol prohibits governments and armed groups from forcibly recruiting

children under the age of 18, or allowing them to participate in armed conflicts.

In just two years, more than 100 governments have signed the protocol. Over 40

have ratified it and pledged to abide by its obligations. For children who have

been soldiers, the future is often very difficult. Many can’t read, have no job

skills, and have been traumatized by war. The above should go in the following

section.

How many working children?

How many of India’s 82 million children not in school are in the work force?

How many children work and how many works without wages in the fields or in

cottages alongside their parents? There are no data and facts and figure. Large

numbers of children work in cottage industries producing carpets, matches,

firecrackers, bidis, brassware, diamonds, glass, hosiery, hand-loomed cloth,

embroidery, bangles and traditional handicrafts, often for wages, but sometimes

without wages alongside their parents. On tea plantations, children pluck leaves

that they add to their mothers’ baskets, and only when they reach the age of

twelve or thirteen are they given a basket of their own. Children who tend their

parent’s cattle, fetch water and wood, and prepare meals are not classified as

working children, although they are if they do the same work for pay for others.

Even those who are paid wages are not easily counted. The number of children

employed in cottage industries is not reflected in census data. Nor are many

children employed as domestic servants for the middle class. Nor are children

working in restaurants, tea stalls, and in wayside shops. Children are hawkers,

newspapers vendors, rag pickers, shoeshine boys, and helpers on construction

sites. They break stones in quarries and load and unload goods. Many children

work as ‚apprentices‛ – some in government workshops – and are presumably

not reported as employed. And there are the street children, especially beggars

and prostitutes, who are underreported. (see Myron Weiner, The Child and the

State in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991, p.20).

III

Globalization and Its Discontents – The Place and Status of Children

Globalization as a powerful idea continues to challenge all of us since it also

affects everyone’s lives including the children. We live in a world, which is

undergoing stupendous changes. For all these changes technological revolution

is the core factor. Changes are taking places at an alarming level. Young school

going children are using Internet to complete their assignments. In the remote

villages to quench our thirst even if we don’t find drinking water, Coca-Cola,

Pepsi Cola and other soft multinational beverages are available in teashops.

Young boys and girls working in Business Processing Outsourcing (BPOs)

crammed in cubicles at odd hours. Auto-rickshaw drivers and ordinary vendors

seldom we see talking over the cell-phones. At the same time, the other India

portrays that majority of children who are outside the globalizing processes is

poor, to fill their bellies beg, involved in rag picking, sell their labor in the

unorganized sectors, do not go to school, and face all sorts of difficulties. For

them, globalization means the ‚law of the jungle‛ and ‚survival of the fittest‛.

It is in this context that The World is Flat9 by Thomas Friedman a celebrated

columnist in New York Times acquires relevance. He moved around the world

including Indian and observed the changing reality. According to him,

Globalisation has the capacity to create a culture in which knowledge and

resources can be shared and even the hitherto nations can regain their voice. It is

a steady movement towards a more fluid and dialogic world. As Friedman

argues, ‚It is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and complete

in real time with more other people on more different kinds of work from more

different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous

time in the history of the world‛ – using computers, e-mail, networks,

teleconferencing and dynamic new software.‛10

Interestingly for Friedman, his visit to Bangalore prompted him to write this

book because of India’s remarkable success in IT and the new confidence being

instilled amongst Indians all around. A software professional from Bangalore

could convince him that the level playing field is being established and countries

like India are able to compete for global knowledge work as never before. For

him, it is the dawn of the new era. He analyses that there are multiple factors out

9 Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalized World in the 21st Century,

London: Penguin Books, 2005. 10 Ibid.

of which increasing acceptance of economic reform and liberalization throughout

the world and the miraculous power of new technologies – that have led to the

emergence of a flat world. The flat world has made ‘connectivity’ possible. Those

who believe that the world has been ‘flattened’ by globalisation through

windows, the Internet, workflow and open-source software, out-sourcing, off-

shoring (i.e., foreign direct investment), supply-chaining, in-sourcing, Google

and wireless communication. The forces of globalisation according to ‘flatteners’

are transforming the world less hierarchical, more prosperous and equal (by

exporting jobs such as outsourcing i.e., BCO), more transparent and democratic,

and less prone to conflicts and wars.

Friedman’s metaphor of ‘flat’ needs careful interrogation. Some retort by saying

that the world is still ‘round’. For them ‘round’ denotes ‘divided’, ‘fragmented’,

‘uneven’, ‘unequal’, ‘hierarchical’, and ‘undemocratic’. Nevertheless, the pundits

of globalisation describe these changes as unprecedented and momentous, and

therefore should be appreciated and appropriated. Others look at these changes

as adverse leading to another form of dependency and neo-colonialism.

One cannot ask for proportionality of a particular dimensionality of globalization

despite its multidimensional character. Some contend that cultural and social

integration are greater than economic integration. However, the term

globalization is used here in the limited sense of economic integration, which can

happen through the three channels i.e., a) trade in goods and services, b)

movement of capital and c) flow of finance. There is also the channel through

movement of people within and between countries.

Globalization is a process of rearrangement of the production, labour, capital and

the world's resources between people and countries. Globalization has also

integrated the scattered and dispensed activities. In this process there are

beneficiaries as well as victims. Some countries as a whole would benefit and the

others lose. In the ultimate analysis some may be integrated and others be

marginalized. They include countries, communities, groups and individuals. The

most marginalized are the children.

Globalisation and it’s story of survival of Children

India is a globalisation success but cannot look after its children – UNDP Report

2005. This statement is well attested by a 200-page report titled ‚Status of

Children in India Inc‛ brought out by a Delhi-based NGO, HAQ: Centre for

Child Rights. The Story of the grim survival if Indian children is recounted in the

status report through compilation of various surveys and reports related to

children’s issues like mortality, health and nutrition, feticide and girl child,

education, child labor, sexual abuse and trafficking.

On each of these parameters, India has been caught napping. Nobody would

disagree that the survival for Indian children has become increasingly tough

when we learn that 2.5 million children die in India annually. About 87 of every

1000 children born have the probability of dying between birth and five years of

age (under five mortality rate). ‚The state of India’s new born and the health

challenge faced by them is bigger than that experienced by any other country.

Although India’s neo-natal mortality rate (NMR) witnessed a significant decline

in the 1980s (from 69 per 1,000 live births in 1980 to 53 per 1,000 live births in

1990), it has remained static since then (only dropping four points from 48 to 44

per 1,000 live births between 1995 and 2000),‛ the status report observed. As

against the claims of a food surplus nation, one in every three malnourished

children in the world lives in India. Child malnutrition is generally caused by a

combination of inadequate or inappropriate food intake, gastrointestinal

parasites and other childhood diseases, and improper care during illness. ‚Is not

incongruous that in a nation with soaring Gross Domestic Product rates and

Sensex indices, children continued to die of malnutrition and starvation?‛ the

status report asks.

The major cause for such a tragedy is the lack of public health services in remote

regions, poor access to subsidized health care facilities, the declining state

expenditure on public health and the lack of awareness on preventive measures.

The very existence of the girl child is under threat. Sex selective abortions,

feticide and the re-emergence of infanticide, are taking a toll. The report notes

that the adverse sex ratio in Haryana has made it difficult for men to find brides

locally and has led to buying, selling and sexual exploitation of young girls and

women from other states. Touts play a major role in arranging brides from the

states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and now even Kerala.‛

There has been a decline in the percentage of students who stay in school till

Class V at 61.2 per cent from 62 per cent which is way below the global average

of 83.3 per cent. The report points out a sharp decline in the enrolment ratio at

the upper primary level, while the dropout rate increases as it proceeds towards

higher levels with children belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled

Tribes facing discrimination. India continues to have the highest child labor in

the world and there is an increase in reported crimes against and by children.

The country has the dubious distinction of having the world’s largest number of

sexually abused children with a child below 16 years raped every 155th minute, a

child below 10 every 13th hour, and one in every 10 children sexually abused at

any point of time. An estimated 6,00,000 to 7,00,000 children are sexually abused

with buying and selling of children within and across borders for all kinds of

purposes – labor, marriage, entertainment and prostitution – continues unabated.

Asked what the status report intends to achieve. Enakshi Ganguly Thukral at the

Centre for Child Rights who led a team of four researchers to prepare it, told

Deccan Herald: ‚We are trying to propel child rights from the fringes of welfare

state to mainstream politics. We want to place these rights on the centre stage of

national debate.‛ Is this possible? Not as long as our lawmakers remain

disinterested. There is little legal framework to address concerns in the emerging

scenario. But our lawmakers both at the Centre and in the states find little time

for these issues, as they are busy in party politics, collecting speed money or

stalling the legislature. During 2003-04, about 8227 questions were raised in

Parliament of which 843 Questions – a mere three per cent – were focused on

Indian children.11

IV

Incensed About Suffering of Children--Silenced State

The governments of developed countries and two-third world continue to

protect children and promote their rights. The governments by and large have

enacted legal provisions that basic education is provided and employing children

in the form of child labor not permitted. In recent times the nation states regard

children as means and ends for their present and future generations. The future

of all societies depends on the little children who would shape its future.

Therefore, imparting education to the children is a must and the state is obligated

to ensure that basic education becomes mandatory. Thus the state acts as the

custodian and protects of children who by the very fact of their vulnerability.

However, in most of the countries of two-third world the implementation of

primary education as compulsory for children has not been successful as

expected, nor abolition of child labor.

11 See K.S. Narayanan, ‘It’s a story of survival for too many kids’ in Deccan Herald, January 10th, 2006,

p.9.

Children are considered as an economic asset to the poor. They are used to graze

cattle, collect firewood, and work in the fields. Since the children cannot bargain

because of their susceptibility and thus work in cottage industries, tea stalls,

restaurants or as domestic workers in middle class homes. They are used for sex-

trafficking or live as street children, begging or picking rags on the streets. Many

in the poor countries that are predominantly agrarian absorb bonded laborers,

tending cattle and working as agriculture laborers for the local landowners. The

income they bring-in and the work they do may be meager or insignificant, but

parents who live in absolute or relative poverty level need their help. Most

children do not continue their schooling and drop-out. Of these who enter first

grade, only four out of ten complete four years of school. The drop-outs enter full

time work either for wages or not, they contribute their labor. The law when it

comes to ‘child labor’ in cottage industries is not clear and thus vague and posits

ambivalence.

All the nations of the world keep affirming beyond the shade of doubt that

politically, socially and on economic sphere child is the seed of nation’s future.

Conscious of this indisputable fact, there have been innumerable legal provisions

and enactments to protect children against exploitation by the different forces of

society and organs of the state so that their physical, intellectual and moral

development. But it is a paradox that they fall much short of. Both the organized

and unorganized sectors still remain untouched by child labor legislation and

executive orders. The problems of child abuse and child labor have by now

assumed unprecedented proportions in most of the countries of the world,

including the developed and affluent countries.

The children are excluded and invisible because their interests are not

safeguarded and of neglected children the world, and therefore we need to bring

them into the mainstream. The assessment of the world’s most vulnerable

children, whose right to a safe and healthy childhood is exceptionally difficult to

protect, is about children who grow up beyond the reach of development

campaigns and are often invisible in everything from public debate and

legislation to statistics and news stories. Millions of children disappear from

view when trafficked or forced to work in domestic servitude. Others, such as

street children, live in plain sight but are excluded from fundamental services

and protections.

Why do children become invisible? Weak governance and discrimination

deprive children of protection from abuse and exploitation and exclude them

from school, healthcare and other essential services at alarming rates. The

reports that have come out on children suggest that the world must go beyond

current development efforts to ensure that the most vulnerable children are not

left behind. Governments must step up their efforts in research, monitoring and

reporting, in legislation, financing, capacity-building and other programmes, the

report says.

Failure of Governments to turn Promises into Practice or Rhetoric into Reality

More children than ever are living in poverty – an estimated 650 million

live in absolute poverty.

There are approximately 150 million street children in the world.

An estimated 250 million children are trapped in child labour, many in

dangerous and hazardous conditions; one-half of them work full time.

120 million children do not have the opportunity to attend Primary School.

Millions of children, mostly girls are victims of sexual abuse and

exploitation.

An estimated 300,000 children, some as young as eight, are soldiers.

In a globalizing context it is crucial to understand the problem of children. It is a

historical necessity for us that in the face of a mounting economic and political

crisis the two-third world having had no option embraced market-economy

which altered the nature of socio-economic relationships in these societies. While

doing this, it was assumed that market-ushered economy as the only arbiter of

efficiency and growth and an abdication of responsibility of the state for the

welfare of its populace. Further it was also assumed that the growth achieved

through market forces would gradually trickle-down to the poor and the

vulnerable in the long-run. However, the data and other facts clearly show that

the ‘new’ poor is on the use and therefore the need for ‘human’ face to

globalisation because globalisation of the economy is being accompanied by a

fragmentation of social vision. In order to look into the fall-out, a number of

departments have been created whether children’s rights, child labor, infant

mortality or illiteracy of children. What is happening is that,

While the numbe of such “departments” proliferate with the multiplication of social

problems, the juggernaut of globalisation moves on integrating not only economic

structures but also globalising social evils. The fracturing of the social vision also

promotes the illusion that each of the different social fragments can be dealt with

separately, and serves to conceal the structural links that bind the different fragments

together along with concealing the basic chasm between the North and South that persist

and is in fact widening.12

Apparently in eighties UNICEF commissioned a study on the impact of

structural adjustment on children (Cornia, Jolly and Stewart, 1988). Three sets of

variables have been isolated in the areas of child welfare:

a. Real resources in cash or kind at the household level. Here, three main variables

influence the level of resources i.e. subsistence production, moneey incomes (whether

from wage, self-employment or from transfers), and the rate of inflation, particularly

for food.

b. Government expenditure on health, education, child care, water and environmental

sanitation, supplementary feeding and food subsidies.

c. Family and community characteristics. The three elements that strongly influence

child welfare within the household (and the community) are the time, health and

skills (measured by the educational level) of the parents, particularly the mother. 13

The authors have clearly delineated the three sets of variables during periods of

recession and ‚indiscriminate‛ economic adjustment. For instance,

The different determinants of child welfare would affect child welfare with varying

intensity and speed depending upon the variable selected. In general, it would be expected

that the crisis shows its first effects in terms of increasing child labour and school

dropouts, while more acute forms of social stress like malnutrition and mortality would

become evident only after severe and cumulative decline have occurred. (Cornia et.al.,

1988, Vol.II:37-38)

The study concludes that the economic changes of the 1980s triggered a sharp reversal in

the trend to towards improvement in health, nutrition and educational standards of

children. (Cornia et.al, 1988:287)14

In order to understand children in the current era, it is necessary to focus on the

structural roots of exploitation meted out by the children and its embeddedness

in the wider social matrix and its inter-relatedness to wider social processes.

With the increasing integration of economies via globalisation the interlinkages

between socio-economic, political, cultural and religious structures have become

stronger, leaving the children extremely vulnerable marginating this

constituency further.

12 Vasanti Raman, Globalisation and Child Labour, Ocassional Paper No.31, Centre for Women’s

Development Studies: New Delhi, 1998, p.3. 13 Ibid., p.5 14 Ibid.

Globalisation has furthered and intensified the process. Studies, facts and data

clearly show that the forces of globalisation have escalated the crises, principally

the children. The pressures on families especially in the areas of employment,

wages, decreasing social sector budgets have resulted in more children being

pushed to work either to substitute the mother in the domestic chores or

supplement to the family economy. On the following grounds it is justified,

There is a normative dimension to these arguments: the state, it is argued, ought not to

intervene since poor parents need the income of their children. It is thus matter of social

justice that the children of the poor be allowed to work. And there is a political element to

these arguments: powerful employer interests impede the implementation of child labor

legislation or any measures that would remove children from the labor force. Thus the

state ought not to act, and it cannot act. Nonaction has both a moral and a practical

rationale.

It follows from these arguments that the abolition of child labor and the establishment of

compulsory education must wait a significant improvement in the well-being of the poor.

As employment and income increase, so the argument goes, it will no longer be necessary

for the poor to send their children to work and the benefits of education will become more

apparent. A related argument is that changes in technology will eventually reduce the

demand for unskilled child labor and place a premium on education. Only then will

parents send their children to school to acquire the education they need to find

employment. It is also argued that, with an improvement in the national budget,

government will be in a better position to increase expenditures in primary education.15

On similar lines,

…nothing could or should be done to remove children from the labor force and require

that they attend school. Everywhere the arguments were the same: children should work

to support themselves and their families; children would not earn any more as adults if

they went to school; the schools fail to teach skills that make children employable; by

entering the labor force as apprentices at an early age children acquire usable skills;

educating peasant children only leads them to seek employment in the urban labor

market, creating more unemployment, pressure on urban services, and urban unrest16.

The explanations provided above do not stand up against the basic rights and

dignity of children. The number of children employed in cottage industries,

restaurants, tea shops, wayside shops, hawkers, newspaper vendors, ragpickers,

shoeshine boys and helpers on construction sites. They break stones in quarries

and load and unload goods. Many children work as ‚apprentices‛, street

children, especially beggars and prostitutes. Thousands and millions of children

15 Myron Weiner, The Child and the State in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp.13-14. 16 Ibid, pp.16-17.

work in manufacturing, processing, repairs, transport, construction and other

services. Others are employed in household industries and small workshops, in

the carpet industry, glass and bangle industries, in diamond cutting, brassware,

bidi manufacturing, zari making and as ragpickers.

India like any other country has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the

Child and is therefore under an obligation to implement the articles therein.

Theoretically, there are about 300 Central and State statuates concerning

children. Menace of the child labour continues unabated. Does not every child

forced to work. Cry ‚if we are the future, we are dying, there is no future‛. Child

labour is one of the serious modes of human exploitation of child. As we move to

higher advancement in almost every field, yet children are subject to many forms

of exploitative tendencies that we witness globally. They have been exploited

more or less in all periods of time, though varied in its nature and dimension,

depending on the existing socio-economic structures of society. They have been

exploited of their labour, innocence, childhood and openness by everyone.

Future Bleak

Annually, over half of all births in the developing world (excluding China)

go unregistered, denying more than 500 million children basic education,

healthcare and other services that impact their childhood and future.

One in every 13 children in the developing world has suffered the death of

at least one parent

More than one million children live in detention, the vast majority

awaiting trial for minor offenses.

Over 80 million girls across the developing world will be married before

they turn 18, many even younger.

An estimated 171 million children work in hazardous conditions.

8.4 million Children are subjected to the worst forms of child abuse,

including prostitution and debt bondage.

Nearly 2 million children are used in the commercial sex trade.

There are 150 million disabled children.17

V

Make the World Better -- Theological-Ethical Perspectives

17 See ‘Where have all the children gone?’ in Deccan Herald, December 16th, 2005, p.13.

Biblical Scholars, theologians and ethicists over the past have advocated varied

perspectives on children. In their views on children, they have taken into

consideration multi-faceted issues that we continue to address to-day. Almost all

the biblical scholars, theologians and ethicists claim that children are the gift of

God, and thus present distinctive perspectives on the sanctity of children and

varied recommendations regarding their treatment. They do lift up ‚more

positive‛ conceptions of the nature of children by attributing as gifts of God,

signs of divine blessings, images of God, vehicles of revelation and good

catalysts to challenge and re-examine our attitudes toward children in the

Church, society, and contemporary culture.

Apparently, although we live in child-centered culture, we are governed by the

dominant attitude toward then in one of insensitivity, indifference and even

contempt, as our treatment of their suffering, plight and status indicates. Many

reiterate that our attitude children is shaped primarily by the logic of global

capitalism via the forces of globalisation, and thus our notion and perception

about children not as being intrinsic worth or of infinite value, but rather

primarily as commodities, consumers or economic liabilities or burdens. By

interrogating the prevailing contemporary attitudes, new breaking grounds are

attempted to find ways to foster new conceptions on suffering children, to treat

them with respect and dignity and to articulate their status and place from a

biblical theological and ethical perspective. Further more many of the biblical

scholars, theologians and Christian ethicists have spoken and written for

children as central to Christian faith and life.

The heart and the lesser; greatest and holier: children from Biblico-theological

and Ethical perspective.

A. Children as recipients of the Reign of God.

Children are regarded as a divine gift and sign of God’s blessing. ‚Be fruitful and

multiply and fill the earth<‛ (Gen 1:27-28). More children mean abundant

blessing and a great source of joy (Ps.127:3-5; 128:3-6). Children were regarded as

God’s promise and providence as we see in Abraham ‚a great nation‛ (Gen.12:2;

13:16; 15:5). The gospels use different ways to describe the importance of

children. Jesus bless the children who are brought to Him and says that the

Kingdom of God belongs to them (1Mk.10:13-16; Matt. 19:13-15; Lk.18:15-17).

Jesus clearly shows His preference to children and includes then in all possible

ways. He issues His command, righteous anger by saying, ‚Let the little children

come to me, do not stop them‛. Then compassionately and lovingly cuddles

them, takes them into His arms, lay His hands and bless them. All these actions

clearly prove that the Kingdom of God belongs to them. Further,

His teaching on the reign of God elsewhere suggests an answer. According to the

Beatitudes, the lowly and powerless are the primary beneficiaries of that reign: “Blessed

are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry

now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh”. (Luke

6:20-23; cf. Matt.5:3-12). Now children shared the social status of the poor, the hungry,

and the suffering, whom Jesus calls “blessed”. For this reason, apparently, he insists on

receiving children into the reign of God… Jesus taught a “kingdom of children” in the

sense of a “kingdom of nobodies”, for “to be a child was to be a nobody” an over-

statement because children were emphatically not “nobodies” in the Old Testament-

Jewish tradition. Nevertheless, it is probably correct to say that children’s vulnerability

and powerlessness seem to lie at the heart of Jesus’ extension of the reign of God to them.

Children qua children in this sense- referring presumably to children within the covenant

community – are the intended recipients of the reign of God. It has come for them.18

B. Humility of a Child.

Jesus of Matt.18:1-5 reinforces that one should humble like a child, which means

be endowed with a character of humility. Jesus insists on becoming like

childlikeness which pre-supposes change in view of their weakness and

vulnerability, and therefore ‚humble‛ or endowed with an element of

‚humility‛. Delineating on this further,

Childlikeness is defined explicitly as humility in this pericope: “Change and become like

children” is explicated in the immediately following statement, “Whoever becomes

humble like this child…”…, it could refer both to a condition typical of children (who by

virtue of their weakness and vulnerability are “humble”) and to a corresponding quality

or frame of mind (humility as trust in divine favor). Still, what special connotations doe

it have for the great, and why do they need to exemplify such humility.19

Why Jesus is emphatically enforces ‚humility‛ as a pre-condition? It is because

they are in danger. They are little, vulnerable, innocent and susceptible. Precisely

because of these reasons, Matt.18:6, 10-14, Jesus warns His disciples not to create

stumbling block for ‚little ones‛. In this way Jesus generally picks on socially

weak ‚little ones‛ who have been subjected to despise and mistreatment but

receive divine care and protection. In Jesus’ teaching, children are placed at the

center as prime objects of God’s love and compassion.

18 Marcia J. Bunge (ed.), The Child in Christian Thought, op.cit., p.38 19 Ibid, p.41

C. Receiving Children Means Receiving Jesus

Receiving and welcoming children for Jesus has ultimate significance. Jesus has

exemplified in the conclusion of the same periscope which posits that receiving

children pre-supposes acceptance and recognition. By doing we receive and

serve Jesus thereby the God Jesus represents. By not receiving and accepting

children implies rejection of Jesus and God. In this way, faith and action ought to

be synthesized. The reason being children are the representatives of God, who

are weak and vulnerable. This representative character is also found in Jesus who

personifies humility, vulnerability and suffering servant-hood. Ernst

Schleiermacher (1768-1834) succinctly puts forth,

…the religious significance of childhood has two sides. On the one hand, children qua

children posses a spiritual perspective that is necessary for Christian faith. In their utter

vulnerability and dependence, children mirror the relationship between God and

humanity. Trust and acceptance of dependence are natural in children, while most adults

only grudgingly learn to accept their utter dependence on God. Moreover, children live in

the moment, accepting their feelings and perceptions as they have them. Unlike adults,

who are driven by their ambition to focus more and more on past and future, children

have the gift of presence, or being-there. For Schleiermacher, eternal life is precisely such

a communion with God in the present. Adults need to recover a childlike ability to be

present in the moment if they are to experience the full blessing of Christian faith.20

On similar tone Karl Rahner’s (1904-1984) essay entitled ‚Ideas for a Theology of

Childhood‛ represents a major contribution and gave rise to new breaking

grounds on children. According to his theological anthropology, human person

including children are primarily directed toward God. Therefore a fundamental

theological question that arises here is: ‚In the intention of the creator and

redeemer of children what meaning does childhood have, and what task does it

lay upon us for the perfecting and saving of humanity?.‛21 For him, childhood is

not merely a phase of one’s past, but it is an enduring one, and an abiding reality

viewed in this way, childhood is something that can never be left completely as a

bygone one, because it lingers and very much embedded deep in our sub-

conscience. Childhood continues to exercise its influence on us and thus has an

effect, whether positive or negative. Hence, Rahner concludes, ‚we do not move

away from childhood in any definitive sense, but rather more toward the eternity

of this childhood, to its definitive and enduring validity in God’s sight‛ (35-36)22

20 Ibid, p.348. 21 Ibid, p.421. 22 Ibid., p.423.

In Rahner’s thinking, the experiences of childhood are both ‚eschatological‛ and

‚existential‛ as well. He links efficiently and aptly by appropriating earthly life

to eternal life. Therefore,

For Christians, Rahner writes, the child is a human being from the very beginning of his

or her existence. A child does not simply grow gradually into a human being; he or she is

a human being (37). In the unfolding of one’s personal history, one simply realizes what

one already is. Furthermore, since in Rahner’s theology being human implies an absolute

immediacy to God, the child is intended to be right from the start, a partner of God.

Seeing the human being already present in the child, Christianity “protects the child

while it is still in its mother’s womb… It has reverence for the child, for the child is a

human being”(38).23

For Rahner, human childhood means ‚infinite openness to the infinite‛ which

implies openness, trusting dependence on others, courage to face any challenges

and situations. Conspicuously for Rahner,

..childhood is the beginning of human transcendentality, and thus constitutes both the

quality that enables us to love and to be responsible, and the state of spiritual maturity

that characterizes our participation in the enterior life of God and makes possible the

experience of genuine human community.

Second, according to Rahner, being a child has value in its own right and is not simply a

stage one passes through on the way to becoming an adult. This view stands in sharp

contrast to the market anthropology of late twentieth-century capitalism, which regards

children as commodities or consumers and evaluates their worth according to cost-benefit

analyses. The implication of Rahner’s theological anthropology of the child is clear.

Children are not objects to be bought, sold, or used. Rather, according to the example

given by Jesus in the Gospels, they are the paradigm for a new ethos characterized by

mutual trust and interdependence.24

Rahner’s understanding of childhood entails ‚basic condition‛ or ‚existential

imperative‛ that provides formative stages of human life. It is pre-supposed that

a child as a ‚sacred trust‛ ought to be nurtured and protected at every stage of

his/her existence. Therefore,

…Rahner’s transcendentalnotion of enduring childhood, is the promotion of the dignity

and welfare of children as an ethical demand that is equal in importance to the protection

of fetal life. In particular, the basic openness that characterizes the essence of a child must

not be compromised or betrayed by those who have been entrusted with the care of the

child. Violations of this trust not only injure the child but, as Rahner points out, can have

23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. pp.443-444.

tragic, long-term effects on the adult: his or her basic sense of openness and trust can be

destroyed.25

Rahner revolves around a notion of the child ‚infinite openness to the infinite‛

and his concept of childhood as an intrinsic human value and inherent human

disposition offers a profound theological anthropology. And this theological

anthropology mandates us not only that our obligation is to nurture the children

who have given to us all that belongs to them as children. But the same time, in

the process, all of us must become like children once we were. What will happen

in the process our childhoodness takes over with trust, openness, innocence,

dependence and willingness to trust. In sum, Rahner reminds us,

It is only in the child that the child in the simple and absolute sense of the term really

begins. And that is the dignity of the child, his task and his claim upon us all that we can

and must help him in this task. In serving the child in this way, therefore, there can be no

question of any petty sentimentality. Rather it is the eternal value and dignity of [the

human being], who must become a child, that we are concerned with, [the human being]

who only becomes a sharer in God’s interior life in that he becomes that child which he

only begins to be in his own childhood.26

In a given canopy or a canvas we ought to objectively and dispassionately look at

where and how the children are placed and treated. We have before us a

comprehensive analysis of the understanding of ‚suffer little children‛ which is

implicit in an era of the unrestrained economic liberalism that characterizes

global capitalism, which is based upon a ‚market anthropology‛ which sees

children as commodities, consumers, or burdens. Certainly, this discourse and

other as well, have enormously negative consequences for children,

consequences that I regard as being in fundamental opposition to or antithetical

with a Christian biblical, theological and ethical understanding of the human

person. Christian ethics reiterates the primacy of the whole person and the

common over against one’s individual or class or caste or nation’s interest. As

Whitmore rightly argues,

…unrestrained capitalism puts material objects and individual self-interest before the

welfare of persons and the common good. The market economy’s worldview understands

all things in terms of exchange, so that even human persons become what Whitmore calls

“fungible objects.” Thus, the first characteristic of market anthropology is that the person

is a commodity. However, according to the teaching of the encyclical Laborem exercens,

such instrumentalization and commodification (for example, expression such as

“workforce” and “cheap labour” are used by market economies as an impersonal force or

25 Ibid, p.444. 26 Ibid, p.445.

a kind of “merchandise” that can be bought) are in direct conflict with Christian

teaching. A second characteristic of market anthropology stresses that the person is a

consumer. One have value in a consumer society only if one can purchase commodities,

since the market can expand only if people buy products. Advertising fuels this procesas

by telling people they do not have worth unless they buy certain products. The third

characteristic of a market anthropology is that the person who cannot function as either a

commodity or a consumer is a burden.27

The implications of global capitalism and its market logic are quite obvious. The

children are either considered as commodities and consumers or even as

burdens. Global capitalism via globalisation views children in terms of cost-

benefit analysis provides a classic example of this logic. Their cheap labour is

appropriated with the ‘surplus’ that arguments or accrues to the process of

profit-maximization. In addition to these,

Another example of how market logic affects children’s welfare is children’s television.

TV targets children as consumers by featuring programs with toys as main characters

and hooking children into getting their parents to buy these commercial products. Even

educational programming becomes marginalized by market-driven pressures, thus

reducing the idea of public responsibility to profitability. According to the logic of the

market, no person – child or adult – has “intrinsic worth”. Children who are neither

commodities nor consumers are “non-entities”, and any claim they make on society is

understood as a burden.28

The biblical and theological notion is that children are as gifts of creation and

thus is linked to the image of God. Realizing and recalling that children are

created in God’s image pre-determines the preciousness and infinite worth or

value attached to them. Further, children are signs of a future, which pre-

supposes that they represent the continuum of the present and the future. In and

through them, the present and the future are mediated. Furthermore, because

children are gifts from God and destined to return to God, even our biological

children are gifts ‚ours only in trust‛ (including those children who are not our

own biologically). Thus, children are not ‚burdens‛ but blessings that call for our

love in the firm of present responsibility and stewardship.29

27 Ibid, pp.409-410. 28 Ibid, p.410. 29 Ibid, p.411.